"If you do the crime, pay the time" a classmate proclaimed in my class discussion on abortion. It was met with laughs, I was immediately disgusted.
We were presented with the definitions of pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-Life: The medical/ethical position against abortion. Pro Choice: The medical/ethical view for abortion. My hand immediately shot up (think Hermione Granger in Harry Potter). I told my professor, "I don't think that definition of pro-life is correct. The basis of the argument against abortion lies in personal morality or religious doctrine; there isn't a medical position against abortion". Another person shot back at me, "I think that the definition is correct even though people use their personal beliefs to decide on the issue. If you have sex, yeah, you're gonna get pregnant." Unbelievable! Keep in mind this is a class of about 120 college students all with an interest in health.
A male student backed her up with the most disgusting thing I've ever heard, "If you do the crime, pay the time".
Someone in the comment section please explain to me what the hell is that supposed to mean? Abortion is legal. Abortion was legal before many of us in the class were a seed in our father's sac. It isn't a crime! The shame and blame game of Pro-lifers is sickening.
A female picked up the slack on the pro-choice end and started saying "But what about non-consensual sex..." He cut her off and said, "Non-consensual sex and consensual sex are two different things." She started again, "A pregnancy is a pregnancy no matter how it came about!" He was about to start talking again until another person in the class said, "If you are pro life that's perfectly fine, but why shouldn't anyone else have the ability to make the choice for themselves if they are pro-choice or pro-life. You shouldn't have free reign over someone's personal life. There are so many things that go along with having an unwanted pregnancy, more costs to tax payers, getting into an adoption system and foster care program without the chance to have a happy life; those sort of things are what you are forgetting." Someone in the front of the class backed her up, "I don't think that it is right that someone's personal beliefs can dictate what happens to a group of other people. The problem I have with people who are pro-life is that they expect a woman who is raped to carry out the entire pregnancy, if she doesn't want to do that, it is her decision." Another girl retorted, "I'm 23 years old, I have two friends who had abortions. It is so tramatic for them. You should know that if you do seomthing like this you need to take responsibility and do the right thing."
Oh Mah Gah! At this point, my heart starting pounding, I wanted to rip the pro-lifers a new one. As an aside, one of the great things about Daily Kos is that by reading other people's comments and diaries, I have been able to see perspectives on issues that I have never been able to communicate freely about. I feel that now I can express my beliefs succinctly to people like this, but I'm still working on maintaining my composure without acting like a raging lunatic ;D.
I wanted to say more but at this point the professor shut down the debate and told us to talk about this with her or our peers after class.
This is a group of college students. We are millennials. I was happy to look around and see many people nodding their head in agreement when the pro-choicers took the stage. We think differently than our parents do. Things like Marriage Equality, Universal Health Care or Abortion is a no brainer for most of us. Using personal morality or religious doctrine to discriminate against someone else's individual decision is not our purpose, isn't our job, and Goddammit, it isn't our right!